Perry South

History

The neighborhood takes its name from Perrysville Avenue, which was itself named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who supposedly used a Native American trail to transport supplies during the War of 1812. Perrysville Avenue is an extension of Federal Street, the main north-south thoroughfare of the city formerly known as Allegheny. It was previously a toll road known as the Perrysville Plank Road. Federal Street ends and Perrysville Avenue begins where the flat river plain gives way to a steep hill.

A 1977 report about Pleasant Valley states that "Pleasant Valley was formerly known as Snyder's Hollow and its stream was a favorite ice skating spot. Primarily, the neighborhood was settled by Germans, Irish, Italians and Poles. Josh Gibson, Hall of Fame catcher for the Homestead Grays, a Negro National League team of the 1920s, lived there." The Charles Street Valley features rowhouses built by the owners of the Federal Street & Pleasant Valley Railway Co., which operated the streetcars that facilitated residential development in Perry South. A series of these rowhouses on Brightridge Street have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Perry South experienced white flight after 1960; from 1960 to 1970, the neighborhood's total population declined from 16,000 people to 13,000, while its African-American population, which had formerly been located almost exclusively in the Charles Street Valley, increased from 15% to 20%. From 1970 to 2000, the total population decreased to just 5,200 people, of whom 65% were African-American.

For more than six decades, the Perry Hilltop Citizens Council has sought to improve housing conditions, advocate for residents, and to improve the neighborhood's business district.

Surrounding Pittsburgh neighborhoods

Perry South has seven borders with the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of Perry North to the north, Northview Heights to the northeast, Spring Hill-City View to the east, Fineview to the southeast, Central North Side to the south, California-Kirkbride to the southwest, and Marshall-Shadeland to the west and north-northwest.

Notable people

Notable individuals who were born in or lived in Perry South include:

• Dorothy Mae Richardson (1922-1991), American community activist
• Josh Gibson (1911-1947), American baseball player
• John Brashear (1840-1920), American astronomer

In popular culture

• In the 1999 film Dogma, St. Luke's Memorial Lutheran Church at 2235 Federal St. Ext. stands in for a church in Mchenry, Illinois.

Gallery

Housesat838-862BrightridgeStreet.jpg|Houses at 838–862 Brightridge Street, built in 1887 Housesat2501-2531CharlesStreet.jpg|Houses at 2501–2531 Charles Street, built in 1885

References

References

1. (2012). "PGHSNAP 2010 Raw Census Data by Neighborhood". Pittsburgh Department of City Planning.
3. "DOGMA Filming Locations TOUR (Then and Now)".
4. "Pleasant Valley". An Atlas of the North Side.
5. "North Side: Perry Hilltop". Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
6. "Brightridge Street Rowhouse Historic District". Gombach Group.
7. "Perry South". City of Pittsburgh Planning Department.
8. "Perry South". University (of Pittsburgh) Center for Social and Urban Research.
9. Nelson Jones, Diana. (April 12, 2010). "Group wants to spruce up Perry Hilltop". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.